


routine

by amy_star



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Kayfabe Compliant, M/M, No Sex, Reunions, lots of feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 16:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12461637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amy_star/pseuds/amy_star
Summary: Things change in June 2014. They change again in August 2017.





	routine

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little bit of my own headcanon about the Ambrollins reunion we have been getting over the last few weeks.

When they first were on the road together, they all shared one room. Poor kids, not knowing how long they could count on the money coming in; it was all they knew. Two beds, Roman in one, Seth in the other, Dean curled into a chair or on the floor. They started getting into routines, and soon enough it was comfortable. Second nature. After long drives, sometimes Seth would just stay up and go to Crossfit before coming back to crash when Dean and Roman went to a gym later. When that happened, Dean got the second bed while Seth puttered around, charging devices, laying out clothes, creating playlists on his phone. Hearing Seth rattle around the hotel room became strangely comforting, a kind of white noise that lulled the restless Dean to sleep.  
They all lived in each other’s pockets in those days, but Seth usually gravitated to Dean’s side. He and Roman were tag champs, but he and Dean had more history together, a natural chemistry. He could have shoved himself into bed with Roman, but when he came back from the gym, hair still damp, smelling vaguely spicy from his body wash, he nestled in next to Dean every time. Yeah, Roman was bigger, and Dean was in the bed closer to the door, he had a litany of excuses and reasons why. He would slip in under the comforter, laying a gentle hand on Dean’s shoulder as Dean started to stir, and whisper, “Easy. ‘S just me.” And Dean would hum, and resettle, and go back to sleep for a couple more hours.  
Then everything changed. And the rhythm was gone.  
The first night in a hotel room with just Dean and Roman was uneasy. Dean laughed, a brittle sound. “Least I get a whole bed to myself.” Roman just looked at him with pity until Dean turned off the lights. Sleep didn’t come easy; things were too quiet, too different. The bed felt too big. The two of them didn’t work in a room alone together, it always felt like Dean was waiting for Seth to come in. Within a couple of weeks they started working different programs, and roomed alone. It was better that way.   
Roman couldn’t hear him cry when he would wake at eight in the morning any more.  
The night Dean and Seth won the tag titles was bittersweet. Dean was still aloof, cagey, unsure. Seth looked at him with dark eyes Dean couldn’t read anymore, and quietly asked Dean to ride with him. Dean didn’t even think about it, he just dropped his bags in Seth’s rental, not even telling Roman and Ronnie he wasn’t coming with them until he sent a quick text, halfway to Seth’s hotel. The ride was tense and silent, learning how to be in each other’s space again. It felt surreal.  
He didn’t have a reservation at Seth’s hotel, but that didn’t matter. Seth had a room with two beds, and he wanted to talk, so Dean quietly followed along. Seth took the bed near the door, Dean the one by the window. They didn’t get much talking in; it was late, and neither knew what to say. Just being in the same room was changing things, easing some of the tension neither knew they had been carrying for more than three years.  
For the first time since June of 2014, Dean dropped easily into sleep. And when Seth climbed into his bed at eight in the morning, for the first time Dean turned to him and held on.


End file.
